A federal judge agreed to drop the remaining criminal charges against two Louisville, Ky., police officers who were involved in drafting the no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by police officers in 2020.
Judge Charles R. Simpson III of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky approved a request by the Justice Department to dismiss the charges with prejudice — meaning that the two officers, Kyle Meany and Joshua Jaynes, cannot be charged in the same case later. He made the ruling in a one-page order, without explanation.
Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency room worker, was watching movies in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend when plainclothes officers battered down the door looking for illegal drugs. Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, believing the intruders were robbers, fired a single shot at them with his licensed handgun, and the unarmed Ms. Taylor was killed in the hail of return fire from the officers.
In an interview with ABC News this week, Ms. Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, denounced the move to drop the charges against the officers, saying that her daughter “was killed because of their lies and negligence, and somebody should be held accountable for that.”
Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Jaynes and Mr. Meany of falsifying records to make it appear as if Ms. Taylor had a connection to criminal activity, charges that might have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. Neither was present at the shooting.
No drugs were found in the no-knock raid on Ms. Taylor’s home. Three police officers fired more than 30 bullets into the apartment. Ms. Taylor was struck six times. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Last week, the Trump administration asked the court to dismiss the charges “in the interest of justice.” A Justice Department spokesman described the charges as an example of “weaponized federal overreach” by the Biden administration.
It was the latest effort by the Trump administration to intervene in support of the officers charged in Ms. Taylor’s death. Last year, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the head of the department’s civil rights division, asked a federal judge to sentence a Louisville police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor to just one day in prison. The judge sentenced the officer to nearly three years in prison, but he was released on bail pending an appeal.
The Trump administration also abandoned a consent decree with the police department in Louisville, one of many agreements intended to rein in departments accused of civil rights violations — primarily police violence against Black people.
The death of Ms. Taylor was one of the main drivers of wide-scale protests that erupted in 2020 over police violence and racial injustice.
Under the Biden administration, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland charged four members of the Louisville Metro Police, accusing them of taking actions that led to Ms. Taylor’s killing during the botched search for a drug dealer she once dated.
The Justice Department under President Trump, however, has sought to rein in or abandon many civil rights cases begun under earlier administrations. The motion to drop the charges against the two officers, Mr. Meany and Mr. Jaynes, was signed by Harmeet K. Dhillon, the head of the department’s civil rights division. Ms. Dhillon has abandoned the unit’s historical mission of addressing discrimination against minorities and violence rooted in race.
At the direction of Mr. Trump and his subordinates, the federal government has focused instead on investigating claims of discrimination against white people — particularly white men.
The case against the two officers had already been significantly weakened before the charges were dropped.
Last August, Judge Simpson threw out some of the most serious charges against the two officers, including accusations that they had committed violations of federal civil rights laws.
In that ruling, the judge acknowledged that he was “troubled” by the officers’ potential falsification of the warrant, but said the government could not prove that their actions had directly led to Ms. Taylor’s death in a hail of police bullets.
He left in place several other lesser charges, including misdemeanor civil rights violations, falsified records and conspiracy to conceal the officers’ actions.
Three officers were fired in the aftermath of the killing, including Mr. Jaynes; Myles Cosgrove, who fired the fatal shot; and Brett Hankison, who was also present at the raid.
State prosecutors charged Mr. Hankison with wanton endangerment for firing 10 bullets through a covered window and glass door, although none of the rounds hit anyone. He was acquitted, prompting widespread calls for federal charges. In 2025, a federal jury found Mr. Hankison guilty on one count of violating Ms. Taylor’s civil rights by using excessive force.
In 2022, Kelly Goodlett, who worked closely with Mr. Meany and Mr. Jaynes, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for falsifying an affidavit to obtain the warrant and for lying to criminal investigators. She has yet to be sentenced, according to court records.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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